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The latest edition of ‘Recording Now’ the species recording newsletter from the IWLRC / iWatch Wildlife is available now. Find out more about new discoveries, recording stories, news and upcoming events here on the Island.

The Recorders’ Conference is on Saturday 3rd February 2 – 4.30pm in the Arreton Community Centre, Main Rd Arreton Parking is available next to the hall; if this area is full, there is overflow parking available at the primary school opposite.

This year we have a range of shorter talks from a variety of speakers:

· Bryophyte recording George Greiff

· A new damselfly for the Island Jim Baldwin

· iWatch wildlife: progress to date Tina Whitmore

· Proposal for Biosphere Reserve for the Island Richard Grogan

· Nightingale Recording Project Jamie Marsh

· Under the Pier Ian Boyd

· Plants on campsites Colin Pope

There will be the opportunity for questions after each talk, and an interval for tea and cake with the opportunity to look at displays and chat to other enthusiasts.

Please bring photographs or mounted specimens of last year‘s interesting Island wildlife finds (or items that provided a challenge to identify) to share with your fellow recorders on the Island Wildlife display table.

If your group or organisation would like to bring a display, please contact Anne Marston at lrc@iow.gov.uk by 30th January 2018 so display space in the hall can be allocated.

The dates for this year’s event were set by the BSBI as 30th December 2017 – 2nd January 2018. The weather was mixed in the final days of December, but a check of a weather forecast site predicted overcast conditions on the Isle of Wight for 30th December. However no rain was forecast until after dark, so a group of nine set off northwards from Winchester House car park to explore Lake cliffs. This was new territory for all of us!

We walked down Littlestairs path, along the Esplanade to Ferncliff path, back up to the cliff to make a brief detour to Battery Gardens and then returned to our starting point along the cliff top path two hours later.

New Year Plant Hunt rules require the flowers to have anthers or stigmas visible to qualify as ‘flowering’. Around the car park and on our way to the cliff, we found creeping buttercup, daisy, common cat’s ear, and winter heliotrope. On the cliff face we found broom, gorse, and greater periwinkle. Looking along the talus slope and behind the beach huts at the base of the cliff provided the opportunity to add naturalised plants such as red-hot poker and Hebe ‘Blue gem’ to our list.

Hydrangea proved to be the subject of much debate -could we count it or not? ‘When is a flower not a flower?’ – when you are observing are sterile bracts and there are no anthers or stigmas, it doesn’t count!!

Re-ascending the cliff gave us a pot marigold flower in pristine condition. The walls around Battery Gardens enabled us to find ivy-leaved toadflax, pellitory-of-the-wall and Sicilian chamomile and there was a primrose in flower at the edge of the grass. A quick tally from the mobile phone screen gave an approximate total of 45 species so far, so a target of 60 was set. The clifftop yielded a fine specimen of field scabious and a patch of red valerian amongst others. Back at the car park our provisional total was 58, so much searching under fences and on walls occurred to find keel-fruited cornsalad and trailing bellflower.

Checking of the results later made our total 61, though the BSBI website does not entirely agree; that comes down to the group leader’s issues with the mobile phone app recording form! However, we were top of the leader board for quite some time until the Swanage and Cornwall groups got going! And yes, the weather kept dry for us, except for the briefest of showers at Battery Gardens. The final results are here.

Become a Citizen Scientist and help your local environment by taking part in the Isle of Wight Water Blitz and help to build up a map of water quality across the island! The Water Blitz will run between the 25th November and the 20th December.

You can be part of current scientific research by using quick and simple test kits to measure the levels of two widespread pollutants, nitrate and phosphate, in the Isle of Wight’s many ponds, ditches and streams.

Opening Event – 25th Nov (10am-12pm) @ Riverside Centre, Newport.

Join us for an introductory talk to the Water Blitz. Find out everything you need to know before collecting your kits and heading out to test your local freshwater habitats.

It didn’t matter that it rained (again!) for the annual and hugely popular ‘Under the Pier’ event in Ryde led by the team at Arc and Artecology. A steady stream of folks armed with nets and buckets set off (more…)

Sunday 2nd July saw the gathering of folks from across the Island with an interest in species recording and identification for an afternoon of fieldwork and workshop sessions to explore and examine the diverse and surprising flora and fauna of The Bay at the first IWNHAS Summer Recorders Event.

With Dinosaur Isle as our base, we set off on three different fieldwork sessions to collect grasses, sedges & rushes with Colin Pope, Insects with Ian Boyd and check the overnight moth trap with Iain Outlaw. (more…)

This Friday 2nd June sees the 7th Annual BioBlitz being held this year in Parkhurst Forest, Newport 10 – 4pm and brings amateur and specialist wildlife spotters together to record our treasured natural heritage. (more…)